The short story is called “Survivor Type” so if you don’t want spoilers, don’t read on. But it’s a worthy read.
Didn’t know if I should put this in Cafe Society or IMHO, since it’s from a book, but
a sort of low-level GQ. I like IMHO, so here it is.
So. There is a short story I read some time ago where a fellow is stranded on a deserted island, really a tiny rock, with nothing to eat on it. He’s got a knife, I think, and lots of heroin (ran drugs). He’s a disgraced surgeon. All of these things are important.
Time goes by and as he is not rescued, he goes to any lengths to survive. His breaks his foot at one point and amputates it when he sees rot setting in. He then eats his own foot to survive.
He continues cutting bits of himself off and eating them, and at the end of the story, he has cut off everything below his waist and his ears, and he is drooling in anticipation of the next body part to eat. He’s been preserving his hands desperately, but the diary ends when
he cuts off his left hand to eat
Now the thread is not really about that story, creepy as it is, but about the actual repercussions of eating bits of yourself to survive. I have no idea, would this even work?
My WAG is no. Clearly the events of 127 Hours showed you can perform an amputation on yourself. But you would probably also die pretty soon if you didn’t get actual medical attention shortly thereafter.
From a purely laws of thermodynamic point of view, digestion isn’t a 100% efficient process. So you will loose some percent of nutritional value from every piece of yourself you eat. Not to mention you would probably need MORE energy to heal from the surgery.
What do you mean by “actual medical attention”? In the story, he’s an actual surgeon with an actual surgical kit and a supply of anesthesia (none of which were available to the fellow who amputated his arm in real life). I don’t remember if he has any antibiotics or anything to fight off infection, but otherwise I think he was well set.
Stephen King addresses this question in the foreword. Apparently he asked a doctor-friend how plausible the story idea was, and the answer was, “How badly does the patient want to survive?” Anyway, whether it’s really possible or not, I’m glad he went ahead with it. Love that story!